


Strike A Pose

by Hisana



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Meetings, Humor, Meet-Cute, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 13:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17387234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hisana/pseuds/Hisana
Summary: Lardo is a freelance designer and artist that's struggling to make ends meet this month, which is why she decided to accept an art commission.Painting an oil portrait for some trust fund baby is not exactly her dream project but Bitty got her the job, so can the client really be that bad?Fill for a tumblr prompt: Shitty has inherited the knight family wealth and decides to commemorate a new, less terrible era in his family history by having a giant, pompous portrait of himself painted – while in his Wonder Woman boxers smoking a joint. Lardo is the struggling freelance designer by day, artist by night, who is hired to paint said portrait.





	Strike A Pose

Lardo knew when she had picked her major that life wasn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows, and that she wouldn’t get to just wear a beret and paint covered smocks everyday while bringing out increasingly weird and yet critically acclaimed paintings.

Still, she’d like to think she had made it work alright. She had a sweet gig as a freelance graphic designer where she got to make kickass logos and business cards, and the flexible schedule gave her enough time to work on her own art and projects. This month had been a bit rough on the freelance part though, and that’s why she was really grateful when her friend Bitty tipped her off on an art commission for some trust fund baby.

She was looking on her phone for the address she was supposed to meet the guy at, some massive house out in the suburbs that she’d have to walk to get to, she tried to remember what Bitty had told her about this client. Apparently, the guy was set to inherit his father’s company soon, or something and to celebrate, he wanted an oil painting of himself, to hang in the halls of the giant ass manor she was about to set foot in, probably.

To be honest, the guy sounded like a massive douche, because, really, an OIL PAINTING. That was ultra obnoxious. Still, a job was a job, and Bitty was the one who recommended her to this B. Knight guy and she usually trusted Bitty’s judgement.

She and Bitty met in college, when she decided to become the Samwell Men’s Hockey Team manager in order to make a little money on the side. It beat serving latte at Starbucks and it was a nice addition to her resume. Also, it’s kind of hilarious to order a bunch of massive jocks around when you’re a 5’1 Asian girl. She had graduated two years ago, finding a job in Boston in order to stay close from her Samwell’s friends, and they ended up recreating their good old Haus together with her fellow graduates, Ransom and Holster.

Bitty had graduated the year after and ended up working for one of the company Lardo was freelancing for, as a social media manager. He had long hesitated to move to Providence to live with Jack, but with the graduation and job hunting on Bitty’s side, and the professional hockey playing on Jack’s, both hadn’t found the time to look for a flat before Bitty had to move out of the Haus. As a result, Bitty decided to join them in what they were calling Haus 2.0, preventing them from having to find a roommate willing to deal with all their… eccentricities.

Bitty had met Knight at some talk in Boston, something about Gender and Food in American History. Bitty had actually attended lectures by the professor giving this talk in his Sophomore Year and wanted to bring her a pie to say hi, Knight had been in the front row, glaring at the bros that were giggling during the talk and asking relevant questions about toxic masculinity, thus earning one of Bitty’s tricounty-fair-winning-mini-pies (Or that was what Bitty called them. To everyone else it was “HOW-THE-FUCK-CAN-SOMETHING-SO-TINY-BE-SO-DELICIOUS-pies”).

Okay, maybe this guy wasn’t so bad, based on Bitty’s account of him. But still. A giant oil painting. Graduate summa cum laude from Harvard, about to graduate from Harvard Law School with honors in the next summer. Giant Manor. All of that screamed white overprivileged asshole.

She finally got to her stop but she still had a fair amount of walking to do to get to the rendezvous point and urgh, commissioned works already weren’t her favourite but this one was truly looking less and less appealing the more she thought about it. . Lardo took out her gloves to bring out the itinerary on her phone and as she blew on her hands to try to keep them, she really hoped the guy wasn’t going to try and negotiate down the price or try to push the “exposure” she was gonna get by doing his portrait because she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with a cheapstake douche after walking through all that snow and really why did she chose to live in Boston instead of moving to California or something. They may not have the best pies in the whole damn universe but at least they had beaches and sunshine, and according to Chowder, “THE BEST HOCKEY TEAM IN THE WORLD OMYGOD ISNT JOE THORNTON THE BEST”. … He may be biased. Well, if she didn’t have sunshine, she could maybe still have a pie.

Taking out her gloves once again, she quickly send a message in the group chat to ask if Bitty could please make some of her favourite pie for her tonight, she clearly would deserve it after spending two hours with Mr. FancyPants Knight to sketch out a rough draft of the painting and plan all the logistics. Bitty’s answer was quickfire, as usual with him. He never seemed to leave his phone for more than 10 minutes, even during dates with Jack and that earned him so much chirping from his boyfriend.

“Don’t worry love, Mr Knight is not that bad I swear, wouldn’t have offered him a Bittle Minie Pie if he wasn’t. Already have an apple maple in the oven but I can whip out some chocolate pecan for you tonight too. xoxo”

Lardo smiled at her friend’s answer. Bitty was always overly optimistic of other people’s characters but maybe he was right and this Knight guy was going to be chill. And she had scored some pie for tonight, so there was that to look forward to.

After what seemed like an hour but was only ten minutes according to google maps, she finally arrived at the correct address. Well. She was right about the ginormous manor part of the deal. She hoped this did not mean that all her assumptions were also correct but she really was not feeling optimistic at the moment. Whatever. A job was a job and she had rent to pay. Breathing deeply, she rang the doorbell on the side of the gates and waited. After a few seconds she heard a crackle and a voice came out from the machine next to the gate.

“Yes this is the Knight Household. What may we do for you Ma’am?”

… They even had a butler it seemed. Wonderful.

“Um yes hi, I’m Larissa Duan, I’ve been hired to paint a portrait for Mr B. Knight. I was supposed to meet him there at 2”

“… Ah yes. Please come on in, I will fetch the young Mr. Knight for you.”

Wow. Was that her or did the butler dude sound very cold when she said she was here for B. Knight? Damn, if that was what Mr. B. Knight inspired his employees, she really wasn’t looking forward to working for him. The gates opened in front of her and she had to walk in now and meet Mr. Knight. God. Let’s pray this was over with quick. Maybe she could get a sketch done today and then work on it in her studio, handling the updates and details by mail.

The walk from the gates to the actual front door of the house took her more than 5 minutes and her feets were freezing when she finally got in front of the massive engraved doors. She hesitated for a second, wondering if she was supposed to knock again when the door opened to reveal a stern looking old man.

“Ms. Duan, welcome. I am Jenkins, the Knight family’s butler. Mr. Knight is expecting you in his … study.”

The last word was uttered with some thinly veiled disgust on the part of the butler. Uh. This was getting weirder and weirder. If this guy ended up murdering her and making a skin suit out of her, she’d SO haunt Haus 2.0 and more specifically Bitty’s oven. He was the one who had put her in this situation. She climbed the stairs and knocked to the doors that the butler had indicated her. Even through the closed door, she could hear what sounded like fucking vaporwave blasting and there was a very strong weed smell coming out. What the fuck.

“Mr. Knight. I’m Larissa Duan, you wanted to see me today to talk about this oil painting you wanted do…”

She hadn’t even finished her sentence when the door opened, letting out a comical cloud of smoke. She was used to getting assaulted by giant weed cloud, thanks to living in the Haus for a year and hanging out with hockey bros for more than four years but she still recoiled instinctively when she saw what came out of the smoke. Was this guy actually wearing WonderWoman boxer and … was that a pedostache he was sporting??

“NO. IF ANYTHING THIS IS A PORNSTACHE. A PEDOSTACHE IS GROSS AND HALF GROWN. MY LUSCIOUS ‘STACHE RECIEVES TONS OF CARE AND I WON’T LET YOU INSULT IT LIKE THAT.”

Oops, she had apparently spoken out loud. Not one to be tripped up by half naked weirdos storming out of room because, once again, more than three years of sports bro, she quickly regained her composure.

“… I don’t know if a pornstache is something to be so proud of dude. It’s better than a pedostache but even a goatee is better than a pedostache so that’s setting the bar pretty low.”

For a second it looked like the guy was going to get into a lengthy talk about facial hair and their nobility, pushing his long and flowing hair out of his face, but then, he got a good look at her, noticed the art folder under her arms and the messenger bag with brushes poking out of it and his eyes widened almost comically.  
“Oh shit, you’re the artist for that fucking portrait thing, Larissa Duan, right? Hope I didn’t scare you away, Bitty said you were fucking awesome, he showed me that boob painting from your junior art show, fucking sweet man! And bro, I fucking respect your goddamn bedazzling skills.“

She blinked a few times.

“Bitty showed you my pieces? Also you’re calling him Bitty?”

“Yeah, I dunno, he said to call him like that, said only his mom calls him by his given name anyway? Come on in, sorry ‘bout that weed smell. Fuck I swear I had a fucking shirt around somewhere, shit.” As he was talking to Lardo, he was frantically searching the room, tossing throw cushions around as he went and she took the time to observe the room she was invited in.

It looked like a regular study, if a regular study had a run in with a group of stoners. There was a fancy velvet couch that had some recent cigarette burns on it, sitting in front of a mahogany desk covered in candy wrappers and books. She could make out some Virginia Woolf, what looked like academic papers and a fuckload of law books. The floor could have been carpet but she wasn’t sure, given the atrocious amount of draft papers and various junk littered on the floor.

“Of course he showed me your pieces bro, I wouldn’t hire someone to paint me if I didn’t think their art was dope, right?”

“… Right.” That did make sense but still she was surprised. She expected the client to just be happy to know she could hold a brush and paint something and not give a shit about her personal style or anything. Maybe she wouldn’t need to haunt Bitty after all.

“I don’t mind the weed smell. Used to hang out in what was basically a frat house and I do have an art degree so I’m kinda used to it y’know.”

At that, he threw her a blinding smile.

“Knew I’d like you brah. AH GOTCHA” Knight emerged from behind the couch holding a NASCAR shirt with the sleeves cut off, having already found a pair of jeans at some point during their conversation. While he pulled it on, he blindly gestured at Larissa to sit down on the couch behind her and when he finally won his fight with the shirt, he sat down next to her.

“So. Painting. I don’t know how much Bitty told you about this commission but I’ll recap very quickly. I’m about to graduate Harvard Law School and go to work in the family business which now that I say it out loud sounds like mafia but brah it’s not it’s just this fucking stuffy law firm full of rich old white dudes. Now, the Knight family tradition calls for a fucking portrait of me to be done, there’s a whole gallery of creepy ancestors somewhere in that house and I’ll spare you the visit because it gives me the fucking chill. Anyway, my only requirements for that thing is it’s not boring but, my wise grandparents who are still technically paying for this, also asked that it is traditional in style.”

“So no giant ‘stache covered in paint splashes and bedazzled to hell I guess?” she asked deadpan.

“Fuck you have no idea how much I want this now but yeah, it’s out of question. BUT!” He looked at her conspiratorially . “They gave no instruction regarding the actual pose and decors. So I wanna go wild. Feel free to give any ideas that pass your mind, we must go above and beyond crazy here”

He looked at her expectantly, and he was basically giving her free reign on the composition, she was going to have SO MUCH FUN. She took out her sketching book and started drafting some ideas

“How about we put you in a very conqueror like pose, like one leg up on a dusty law book or, like a representation of ancient institutions that you destroyed”

“AH nice! I like that ! I could have a joint in my hand too, holding it victoriously over my head”

She suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

“What if we put you in those Wonder Woman boxers you had on when I came in? Give a nod to that strong female role model in the middle of the crusty white old dudes, right?”

A very rough draft was starting to form itself on her sketchbook and she’d need to work a bit on the details but she was loving the posture and all they had come up with so far.

“… Bro. If you keep up with those brilliant ideas, I might ask you to marry me before this brainstorming session is over” Knight had stars in his eyes when he looked at the drawing she had produced.

They spent the whole two hours refining the details of what they had come up with and building up a schedule that’d work for the two of them. At the end, they also discussed the price and Lardo’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head when she heard the money he was offering her.

“This is like ten times my actual rate. Even accounting for the time and difficulty and the materials, I would never ask you for that much!”

Knight scoffed “Honestly, it’s my grandparents footing the bill and those assholes made me get rid of my magnificent flow for graduation three years ago. This is a just punishment and if you wanna get Starbucks or food during one of our painting sesh, I’ll write it in the invoice as business expense.”

“You’re really not what I expected Mr. Knight” She laughed, putting away her pencils and sketchbook.

“Urgh, no please bro. Don’t call me Mr. Knight. I feel like I’m my dad and trust me when I say I really don’t want to be my dad.”

“What should I call you then, Bitty only told me you were called “B. Knight” and he seemed weirdly embarrassed whenever I asked him how I should call you”

At that, Knight dissolved in laughter.

“Aw man, he truly is a southern gentleman, isn’t he?” He wiped the tears in his eyes and continued. “Fuck, man I told him no one ever uses my first name and all my friend calls me Shitty. You should do the same bro, especially since it seems we’re gonna spend…” He took a look at the schedule they had drawn out on a striked out draft. “At least 20 hours together in the upcoming weeks”

“Well, see you next week for our first posing session then, Shitty” Securing her art bag on her shoulder, she extended her hand to him and he vigorously shook it.

“See you next week, Larissa Duan.”

“Call me Lardo, seems only fair you get to use my college nickname if I gotta call you Shitty.”

“Alright Lardo”

Sitting in the T that was bringing her back to Haus 2.0 she took out her phone and texted Bitty.

“You were right, he’s not that bad. Still want that pie though”

Bitty answered quickly with a line of kissy face emoji and pies emoji, which probably meant her request had been granted. Yeah, this day really turned out to be way better than she had expected.

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the summary, this was a fill for a tumblr prompt that I originally posted on my blog!  
> You can find the original prompt [here !](https://omgpromptsplease.tumblr.com/post/165192149546/a-portrait-of-the-trust-fund-baby-as-an-endearing)  
> and if you want to come scream at me about Check Please, Hockey, or anything else, you can find me [ on my tumblr ! ](http://hisanakubi.tumblr.com/post/181873312791/a-portrait-of-the-trust-fund-baby-as-an-endearing)
> 
> I may write a second part to this someday too, where actual romantic stuff happens, but it's not set in stone yet .


End file.
